Reluctant Mates - 21 Paranormal Romance Stories (Werewolf, Vampire, Minotaur and Monster collection) (52 page)

Morzan’s chest was bare underneath a tunic that should have been laced but instead hung wide open. He stepped nearer the fire and I saw the tight muscularity of his body, covered in a complex pattern of scars. Slowly, he took a tour of the hall, inspecting each of his new purchases in turn.

One by one, he sized the girls up, inspecting them. His hands moved over them, he tugged their hair, looked closely at different parts of their bodies. Many of them he rejected after that cursory inspection, but the ones who pleased him were subjected to more prodding, more poking. Of the fifteen women aside from Alix and I that rode from Lotan, three passed his inspections.

The girls who displeased the king were shoved back into the center of the room, back to the lusty warriors. Morzan grabbed two of those who pleased him by the hair and yanked them so hard they fell to their knees. He barked a command at the third, which she apparently understood, because she ran ahead, as quickly as she could, through the door where he entered. He dragged the other two, both of them scrabbling their feet along the ground, and then tossed them through the door.

“Lock them. I will use them later. But for now, resume the festivities.” His voice was dark, harsh, and cold. Just like the Zoran weather.

The King collapsed into a simple seat and demanded a horn of beer. The man Alix thought to be a eunuch whispered something into Morzan’s ear when he brought the drink.

“Where?” The king said. “I thought that was all.” He had a voice like kings have. It was soft because he realized that the more quietly he spoke, the closer people had to listen. And the closer they listened, the more it scared them when you yelled.

“He’s talking about us,” Alix said. “I think we should probably just do whatever he wants. Really play it up. Somehow I have the feeling that if he doesn’t like us, we’re not getting out of here alive, no matter how many friends you’ve magicked up.”

“He’s looking this way, Alix. Gods above I’m terrified.”

“I thought you were the one with the steel nerves. Just don’t show it. No matter how scared you are, or I am, we can hide it. We’ve got each other, right? And it won’t be long until your friend shows up. Just keep believing. We’ll be fine.”

“Bring them to me! Bring them now!” Morzan slammed his fist on the armrest of his chair and sat forward.

“No need for anyone to bring us, majesty.” Alix said. “We’re right here. It’s just a shock to see you in all your glory for the first time. Forgive our reticence, but we’re just small little girls. Nothing compared to the great Morzan.”

“Ah, very well. Rise from your knees and come. Does the other one speak as well?”

“I – uh – yes, majesty.” My voice cracked up and down with every syllable. “I apologize for being so nervous.”

“It is...” he pulled the eunuch to him and whispered. “Understandable. My servant tells me the word is understandable. He is strange looking, and not a man, but very useful. Come here. Don’t be shy.”

Alix and I pushed off our knees and clasped hands without thinking about it. Crossing the room with as much grace as was possible in between stepping over passed out warriors and pools of mysterious liquid and discarded joints of meat, I found it harder and harder to breathe.

“Oh, a young one. Two young ones, looks like. Very good. Bare yourselves to me. I will inspect you.”

“Your majesty?”

“Am I unclear? Bare yourselves. That is the term, yes?”

As if to show me what he meant, the mighty king reached out and hooked two fingers on the fine cloth near my neck. He rubbed it between his fingers for a moment before turning to the eunuch.

“Why are these two so dressed so finely?”

“Those two have been specially purchased, your highness. This one in particular.” He nodded to me. “They were the most expensive of the lot. As such, they are to be very well taken care of. I thought you’d enjoy them.”
If what he says is true, Alix and I were destined to be together anyway, even without Shingo’s interference.

The king nodded and slid his hands down my chest, over my pebbled nipples and then reached out to drag Alix closer as well. Each time he moved, the bells and coins and whatever else that was tied up in his braids jingled and clattered.

All of the Zoran warriors, especially the ones that I had watched do their lurid dance a few minutes before, were all large people.

Morzan dwarfed even the biggest of them. From what I remembered, Shingo was close in height, but almost certainly smaller than the king.

Sitting down, he was still almost of a height with me and his chest and shoulders were so broad across that Alix and I together didn’t match him. His brow was hard, and bigger than I expected. His eyes black as pitch and matched his hair. On his face he wore a scowl that only looked more terrifying when he grinned. When he looked to his eunuch, I stole a glance at Alix, but she was absolutely fixated on the giant man who sat before us. Her expression was somewhere in the middle of terror, awe and the same excitement she had when we touched each other.

“Why have you not yet undressed?” King Morzan put his fingers back under my collar and gave a tug that split the fabric around the collar hook on my tunic. “I would see you now.”

“Yes,” I gulped, “yes, your majesty.”

“Stop. No more majesty. Zor is not your western kingdom; Zor is not your home. Call me what I am. Call me Wolf King.”

“O-okay, Wolf King.” I reached up to finish what he started with my beautiful tunic.
No reason to try and fight him. These people seem very used to naked bodies, so I’ll try my best not to be afraid. Remember Jo that you have to be strong. For Alix, too.

I had no reason to think that Shingo was ever going to come. His note could well have just been a cruel joke. Then again, there were the fine clothes and the private house that Alix and I shared. My thoughts swam in looping circles inside my head. I had to be strong. I had to take a hard swallow and grit my teeth. I didn’t know whether to trust Shingo or the version of the tale the king’s eunuch told.

My stomach sank as my third hook fell open.

What if, what if this is all there is? What if Alix was right and he uses us and then kills us, and that’s it? He certainly looks cruel enough to do something like that.

My hands visibly shook when I reached up to touch him. I remembered that Shingo was flattered when I was impressed with his beard.

“Forgive me sire,” I said, “but your whiskers, your braids, are beautiful. How long have you been growing them?”

“Hum,” he grunted. “Since I started growing whiskers at all. I have never been defeated. Not in a battle, not in a duel. When I was born, the gods of our people stopped coming down from the mountains. They didn’t need to. I am here in their stead.”

Alix elbowed me hard in the ribs when I accidentally cocked an eyebrow.

“The son of the Wolf is mighty, tiny girls. He has great appetites and great thirsts.”

I decided to try my luck.

“Wolf King, I’ve heard that you are different from other men.” Beside me, Alix sighed impatiently.

“Oh yes,” he said. “No one is like me. Do you see my equal anywhere in this hall?”

“That’s not what I meant. I heard that...different blood flows through your veins, that you change sometimes when the moon is full.”

Alix hissed beside me, trying to shut me up.

Morzan chuckled and then his chuckle gained an edge.

“You’ll find out soon enough. For now, you will do what I say, or you’ll learn about my other sides sooner than you’d like.”

The message was clear enough. I didn’t need to be menaced more than once.

I fumbled a little with my hook as my hands were trembling so hard I could barely grab anything.

“No, you will undress the other one and she will undress you.”

Alix and I shared a long look into each other’s eyes as we began to do what he said. I tugged the loop of cloth that belted her dress. She pursed her lips, telling me to shush, telling me that everything was fine. Her fine fingers slipped inside my top and undid the hook, letting it fall open to reveal most of my breasts, and then she did the next.

Just like before, when I felt her hands on my skin, the world went away. My fear of the Wolf King got pushed to the back of my mind when Alix’s fingertips brushed against the skin near my nipples. She took a step closer. Her heat caressed my flesh. I drew a quick breath and her hands slid around the sides.

“If it pleases the Wolf King,” she said, “we’d like to give him something to watch.”

Morzan’s furrowed, angry brow smoothed. His threatening scowl relaxed for a moment and he nodded. 

The fabric fell away from my shoulders with a brush of Alix’s hands. She kissed one of my shoulders, and then dragged her tongue in a line to that little spot behind my ear. When she sucked a kiss, I let out a moan and a grinning gasp. She whispered something that I couldn’t understand when she took my earlobe in her mouth and pinched it between her teeth, then dragged them down until they clicked together.

I slid my hands around her shoulders and to the back of her dress where I found a loop of string and tugged. The knot gave way and almost immediately, her body pushed itself free of her binding underclothes and gorgeous silk gown.

“Take it slow. The longer we do this, the quicker it’ll be when he decides to step in and have his way with us.” She sucked my earlobe back between her lips, kissed my neck. Down, down, down she went in a slow, gentle line to my collarbone and then she followed that to where it met the other one.

Her lips lit a fire as they trailed down my prickling skin and between my breasts where she pushed the last of the fabric away. With a little tug, the laces of my underclothes relaxed, and I took a deep breath as the air in the hall caressed my body, sending shivers up my spine and warm fingers back down.

All around us, the chaos resumed. Each time I looked in a different direction and let my eyes open for a moment, I saw some new debauchery being enjoyed by the huge, savage, Zoran warriors upon the small women who existed only to please them. A man wearing leather horse-riding chaps drove himself deep inside a tiny black-haired girl whose tits bounced every time he punched himself into her, and she screamed like she was about to break. But then she let out a long, warm, sticky moan, the pleasured sound dripping from her lips like her lover’s honey.

Alix’s tongue and lips trickled down the middle of my chest to just above my waist. With a touch so gentle I hardly noticed, she slipped her hands up the back of my tunic, loosened my skirts and let them drop. My hands found their way to either side of her face. As she kissed, I stroked her hair and her cheeks. I felt her giggle when I brushed my fingers under her jaw, and purr softly when I gently scratched her scalp in a long, slow motion.

Eyes closed, just drawing into myself all the smells and sounds of passion and smoke and sex that dripped off the walls around us, slightly guilty tingles crept up my back. The vaguest since of shame threatened me, but it didn’t last long. I happened to glance back to the great Wolf King who had leaned back in his chair and let his hands fall into his lap. I couldn’t help but notice that his leather leggings had grown tighter since Alix began pleasuring me.

“Does the great King like what he sees?” I moaned to him in a whisper. I don’t know what had come over me, but whatever it was seemed to be working on him. “Does the great Morzan like how he is being entertained? Oh it seems as though he does. Mmm...”

I was able to reach out just far enough to rub my hand halfway up his massive thigh. Alix tugged down the top of my underclothes and kissed me lower, right above my little tuft of hair. For a moment, I lost myself in her breath and her tongue. The only thing that brought me back was a tremendous grunt from one of the warriors near the bonfire as he grabbed a handful of blonde hair and wrenched a girl’s head backward so hard she shrieked. In the next breath he reached underneath her body, crushing both of her swinging breasts in his hands, mauling her nipples and sending her into a convulsion.

Squeezing both Morzan’s knee and Alix’s shoulder, I let out a whimper of my own when her tongue slipped further down my body and she purred into my sex. The Wolf King watched silently, but let a smile creep across his face as he reached for my hand.

The warrior pulled his cock out of the girl, held it steady in his hand and rammed his hips forward until they slapped against her thighs. He unleashed a roar, held his breath and clenched his teeth. All the cords in his neck tensed up, a moment later, he groaned and I saw his juice fill the girl and drip down her legs as she convulsed, grunted and lost control.

Alix’s tongue slipped between my folds. One of her gentle, delicate fingers traced a circle all the way around my sex, barely tickling in the creases where my legs and body meet. I felt her push me open, her tongue slip deeper.

“Enough!” The Wolf King roared, “I’ve had enough!”

All the writhing, groaning and sucking stopped.

He stood. His heft was so great that when he stepped forward, the boards of the floor creaked.

“Free me.” He said, and yanked me to his side with an iron grip on my wrist. “You do know how to untie a lace, yes?’

I gulped, hard. When my hand brushed against the front of his tented-up leggings, I immediately thought back to the grotesque auctioneer telling me about King Morzan’s huge cock, and laughing about it with Alix. She moved closer, eager to see what sort of thing was hiding in his trousers. I felt warmth pool up in my core and drip down my walls. Not for the first time since arriving in Zor, or even in that one night, I surprised myself with exactly
how
curious I had become.

“You grab one end and let’s pull them at the same time.” Alix made sure her voice was extra breathy and seductive when she spoke within earshot of the king. “I’ve heard about this. I can’t wait.”

“Mmm...” I stroked my hand part of the way down the rod that ran down Morzan’s leg. “How big can this possibly be?”

“Why don’t you find out?” Morzan said.

“What do you say, Jo?” Alix said. “Shall we see the great king?”